December 2006
Legal, Media, Police, Politics, Underworld John Weide continues on his mission to rid the city of organised crime, despite further attacks on his officers by The Surgeons. Weide has reported a twenty-five percent increase in the number of arrests of those with links to organised crime over the last month – although how many of these resulted in actual convictions is less clear. Meanwhile, Weide has been forced to hand over the investigation into the death of his officers to Internal Affairs, something a Weide is less than pleased with if informants inside The Constabulary are to be believed. Media, Police We had that nice policeman John Weide around here the other day, asking about that nasty business with the neighbour the other month and whether we’d seen or heard anything? Turns out that he worked for him, our neighbour for Weide that is. So I told him, neither me nor my Bill had heard anything on account of us both being hard of hearing – although I do remember seeing a posh looking car parked outside at the time when they say they were all murdered. ~ Elderly Witness, Anonymous. Police, Street, Underworld You want to know why Weide isn’t happy that Internal Affairs are getting involved in his department? There’s one thing that separates all of the victims from the rest of his department as well as the fact they aren’t dead – they weren’t on the take either. Of course, I’ll deny anything you print and I hasten to add that I’m not part of Internal Affairs, but if you want the truth just answer me this, whilst the rest of his men were swanning around living the life of luxury, why were all of the victims unable to afford proper security systems? ~ Anonymous Constabulary Officer. Bureaucracy, Police Anonymous source my arse! I know exactly who was behind those comments made against Weide and his crew, Officer John Debown. Never heard of him, well that’s hardly surprising considering that in the twenty years he’s been a police officer he’s never been off the beat, and he’s always had resentment for those who managed to make their way up the chain. Of course, after these comments I’ll be making sure that he never does get anywhere – speaking to your superiors about your concerns is one thing, to the press is unforgivable. ~''John Winters.'' Media, Police, Politics, Underworld With the media continuing to pursue the story of the murder of John Weide’s men, ugly rumours have emerged on all sides – all of which have been firmly denied by both Weide and, surprisingly, John Winters. Evidence has emerged that despite his high profile fight against organised crime, John Weide may in fact be linked to it. All of these allegations are being denied, and The Constabulary is keen to point out that all of the photographs that have turned up as evidence are of Weide taking part in undercover operations in the past. Understandably the media are having a field day with these allegations. Street, Underworld Those photos of Weide that have turned up, him along with a couple of big wigs from the mafia - they aren’t as old as he’s making out and I’ve seen him talking to some of those guys recently. And don’t try giving me the excuse that he’s working under cover, he’s far too high profile to be doing that type of work these days. No, Weide’s playing us all for fools, but I don’t know what side he’s working for. ~ Jimmy “The Gent” Jarbolie. Bureaucracy, Legal, Police, University Whilst he’s appearing in front of the media saying that he won’t rest until he has apprehended the killers of Weide’s unit, Winters is busy making waves by returning to his old buddies in Internal Affairs – the problem is that they appear to be siding with Weide considering all the progress he’s been making. It’s even rumoured that Winters may be approaching recruits out of the city’s university’s in order to avoid the possibility that Internal Affairs may be corrupt as well. This isn’t the first time that Winters has had to do something like this, it’s rumoured that the majority of the squad he put together to root out corruption in the south was recruited straight from university. Occult, Media The university sure has some strange departments these days – Urban Relocation Programming, Extra-biological Studies and weirdest of all, Correctional Data Management. Rumour has it that the last one isn’t part of the student body at all, but a collection of boffins and geeks put together by John Winters to work on a secret project – all very hush-hush. What we do know is that it’s not being financed by either the university or the city coffers, the moneys private, so whoever is bankrolling it must have a fairly substantial set of private investments. What it’s doing, will that’s anyone’s guess. Occult, Street, University Correctional Data Management - yeah, I know those guys, they’re paying us twenty a time for photographic evidence of the Men In Black – say they’re putting together a dossier on how they work. Of course, not everything you’ve heard about them is true, certainly that bit about John Winters. The way that I’d heard it, Winters’ actually tried to use the courts to have them shut down as a possible breach of national security. Asking the guys behind the desk certainly backs up that theory, none of them have a single good word to say about the man. Legal, Media, Politics Is there more to John Winters presence in the city than just trying to clean up the police force? Investigations into Winters home wife have revealed an hitherto undisclosed link between him and Sean Bowden, the deceased politician who was assassinated in order to prevent damaging information regarding the actions of Andrew Sant and Castelan coming to light. A spokesman for Winters has confirmed that Winters wife’s sister was married to Bowden, but later divorced him before he became one of the leading politicians in this city. This has of course raised speculation about why Winters chose to move to the city, is he still seeking the persons responsible for the death of his sister-in-laws husband? Media, Street Eighteen months and only now its coming to light that Winters has a connection to Bowden – it certainly goes some way to explaining his desire to capture The Guardian (which raises the question, did he die in custody or did he meet with an accident). Winters seems to be taking all of the questions in his stride, but a couple of the money men are now getting twitchy as to whether he’s funding a private vendetta against one or more bodies. Bureaucracy, Legal, Media, Police, Politics Three years on from Castellan’s attempted coup and the end of the private police initiative have things really changed? Whilst they may not be as high profile, a private police force of sorts continues to operate in the city under the noses of anyone, in the guise of a “governmental agency” – the so called Men in Black. Even John Winters has long protested their presence, arguing that they create more problems than they remedy, but nothing can be done about them. Some have commented that they will be here as long as they want to be here, an ominous statement at best. Others are more optimistic, could change be around the corner? Industry, Occult, Transport Everyone’s always complaining about those Men in Black being in the city, they’ve got it wrong; they’re over the border in Cheshire somewhere. I see their vehicles coming past my farm all the time, always at high speed, always in a hurry. Way I figure it there isn’t enough to keep them interested there so they keep coming to have a look at what we’re up to, and don’t we make sure that there’s always something for them to do – we got cannibals and killer drugs, a hell of a lot of stuff to keep nosy parkers occupied, if you catch my drift. Occult, Street First it was supposed mediums and oracles being targeted, now it seems that whoever was behind that (if it really was only one person or group) is after anyone who doesn’t fit their accepted view of normality. Okay, so they aren’t going around bumping them off, but have you noticed how many people interested in the occult have come a cropper this year? We’ve got psychics aplenty, respectable shop owners driven from their businesses and to top it all off, James Helmudson incarcerated. Some say that Castellan’s purges stopped with the coup of 2003, if you ask me, they never stopped. Occult, University First it was strange happenings in Werrington Woods, now Keele seems to be suffering from a similar phenomena also. Small tracts of the woodland that surrounds the university have inexplicably gone into decline, with all plant life apparently dying overnight and all of the animals leaving the vicinity. Those strange lights have returned as well, causing astronomers all sorts of headaches. If you ask me, someone’s up to no good in those woods, we just haven’t found out what yet. Occult So Keele woods dying, well, I knew it would happen sooner or later. You see, for everything that has any importance, be it man, beast or place, there is a twin. For everything, no exceptions! Even the things we don’t want to contemplate will have an opposite, a dark side to them that we try not to acknowledge. We all know what is up in those woods and what it is capable of, so what’s to say that during these dark times its twin shouldn’t be growing in strength? ~ Unidentified Loon, Hanley Bus Station. Occult, Politics Change is afoot, mark my words. Walking on these moors I can see the horizon clearly, to the east, the shadow marches on, to the west, man – like circuitry – crawls across the land. The time to establish what is important and what isn’t is almost upon us. Should we ignore one enemy to defeat another? And in doing so, which would be the greater evil to remain? ~ Caoilfhionn Ashen. Church, High Society, Media, Politics Usually we only ever hear from the spokesmen when there’s a political buck to be made, or when they’re after money, but it doesn’t mean that they aren’t always there doing other things as well. A small exhibition of works by an unknown artist was closed down after the local diocese labelled it obscene. Whilst many thought that the art community would rally around the stricken artist they instead backed the churches comments noting that the work was “a talent-less attempt to grab attention through notoriety”. The artist in question has not commented on the move, although it is understood that they may have difficulty in finding galleries that are willing to display their work in the future. Church, Occult All that pornographic art business, it’s just a smoke screen by the church who appear to be more interested in puling the artist out of obscurity, apparently they want to question them about some “unnatural practices” whatever that means. They’re coming over all inquisitorial about it as well, or at least their lawyers are, very unusual for a church to get involved in something like this. Media, Police, Street The Organisation, heard of it? Well you’ll probably be hearing a lot more of it over the coming months as it’s the name that The Constabulary has given to whoever is behind all of the recently uncovered crime rings. If the intelligence is to be believed they are almost as big as The Sandernacht Group, if not bigger. Of course, like them, no one knows who is actually behind the group, or what its aims (other than dragging the city into the pits of hell) are. Expect a lot of rumour posing as fact to emerge over the next few months, at least until some hard evidence is gained. Media, Politics, Underworld Yeah, I’ve done work for The Organisation in the past, not much but some stuff that made the papers. They’re big; make no mistake about it, with fingers in operations up and down the country. Deal in a lot of the hard stuff, stuff that the other gangs aren’t willing to get their hands dirty with, say that if they aren’t getting a profit from it then there’s more for them. Savvy as well, always one step ahead on establishing what a persons vice is. And when they’ve got you as a customer they’ll never let go. ~ Anonymous. Bureaucracy, Finance, Politics, Underworld Whilst the authorities are trying to downplay the possible size of The Organisation there is no need to massage the figures as far as The Sandernacht Group is concerned. Reports by a financial think tank show that their crime related profits in the city may be down as much as ten percent this year, probably due to the growth of The Constabulary. However, before you go thinking that its all over for the crime giant consider this; this year has seen the first proof that The Sandernacht Group has made a move into other cities up and down the country. Locally profits may be down, but with the outward expansion, the bigger picture is not something to celebrate. Street, Underworld And it was all going so well. The Consortium started the year well by dong the unthinkable, establishing a working truce with The Sandernacht Group. However, this move may have resulted in their lack of expansion since – an unwillingness to expand into other territories, by force if necessary, has seen the group stagnate. Can The Consortium survive without expanding? Yes, but it will never be one of the big players in town unless it starts to take risks. High Society, Media, Police, Underworld What’s that proverb about leopards and spots? The Gambinos, long commented (by them at least) to be out of the crime business appear to be pulling their chair up to the table again, albeit taking care not to make a sound by dragging the legs. Protection agencies have sprung up in the north of the city, or at least that’s what some businesses are complaining. The weird thing is that John Weide and his goons seem to be ignoring them completely, odd when you consider that as the smallest criminal group in the city they would theoretically be the easiest to take out. Occult, Street Want to know where all of the old school Gambinos went? They got sold down the river by their mates in exchange for cash to set up that new casino of there’s. Way I heard it the leader of another gang had taken a personnel dislike to them and has now got them all locked up so that he can have his wicked way with them whenever he wants. Big question if that’s true is where are they being kept, because I’m guessing whatever’s being done to them isn’t the sort of thing you’d react quietly to. ~ Anonymous Media, Police, Street Are The Surgeons truly a new criminal gang, or are they just anarchists trying to bring the city to its knees? Sure, they’ve got all the terror trappings of your usual gang, but they lack direction. Just look at what they’ve been up to this month, stealing buses and holding the passengers to ransom. Sure, it gets them cash for their drugs habit, but it isn’t what you’d refer to as a good long term strategy. Bureaucracy, Finance, Media, Police, Politics, Transport With The Surgeons attacking buses and holding the passengers to ransom, The Constabulary has been forced to work with local transport companies to ensure the safety of their passengers from further attacks. The question is, who should pick up the bill for this additional protection, the city that should be protecting us from vicious thugs or the transport company that needs protecting? Health, Occult, Street Here’s an interesting thought for you, what if The Surgeons are being led by James Helmudson from inside The Penkhull Secure Institute? Sure, it may sound crazy, but so are they. He’s got access to both drugs and other medical paraphernalia in their and it suits his sense of humour to the ground. The big question is how is he getting orders through to them, are (as rumoured) some of the staff working with him? Finance, Industry, Media, Police, Politics As the investigation into the underground paedophile ring continues, disturbing links to big business have been made with a number of high profile names having been taken in for questioning by The Constabulary. All have since been released without charge, but the fact that there names came up in the investigations in the first place has caused concern. Share prices took a hit as a result as investors began to worry as to who would be implicated next. Neither Weide nor Winters will comment on the matter further.